Tag Archive for: friendships

We enlisted our dear friend Ada Polla, CEO of Alchimie Forever, to shed light into how important and impactful women friendships can be.

My friendship with Lisa Goldfaden started a couple of years ago – and after finally meeting her, I couldn’t believe we hadn’t met much earlier, as in may ways we are work twins.

Ada Polla

When Lisa asked me to write a guest blog post for her, how could I say no? She told me it didn’t have to be on skin care – and so instead, I want to write a few lines on women’s friendships, and asking for help.

Many could say that Lisa and I are competitors. After all, we both have skin care brands that are positioned at the intersection of dermatology and nature (hers), aka clean and clinical (mine). We sell to many of the same boutiques and spas. We could hate each other, bad mouth each other, and refuse to help each other. But instead, we do the opposite.

I use her products (my favorite is her Fleuressence face oil). When I hear of an account looking for an innovative brand, I recommend hers. She does the same – actually it is thanks to her that you will find Alchimie Forever at Fusion Apothecary in Manhattan. We share industry stories. We tell each other how awesome we are. We lift each other up. There is enough skin in the world for brands to be friend (side note: I feel the same about Sarah Kugelman of Skyn Iceland).

I am a strong believer that women helping women is good for the soul, for the industry, for the world. I love helping, and I love being helped. But I didn’t used to – in particular the latter. When I started in the industry, I knew less but thought I knew more, and I saw asking for help as a sign of weakness. I would do this on my own, by myself. Sometimes I didn’t even want the help that my family provided. I am now older, and wiser, and clearer on a few things:

  • I can’t do it alone.
  • I can’t know everything about everything.
  • Asking for help is a sign of strength.
  • Being helped is as important as helping others.
  • Strong women lift up other women.
  • And Alchimie Forever products and Goldfaden MD products layer beautifully!